Why did the Homestead Act

require settlers to remain on the

land for five years in order for

ownership to be official?

Because the white settlers had to harvest the land for five years for so they could stay on the land forever. A homesteader had only to be the head of a household or at least 21 years of age to claim a 160 acre parcel of land. Settlers from all walks of life including newly arrived immigrants, farmers without land of their own from the East, single women and formerly enslaved people worked to meet the challenge of "proving up" and keeping this "free land". Each homesteader had to live on the land, build a home, make improvements and farm for 5 years before they were eligible to "prove up". A total filing fee of $18 was the only money required, but sacrifice and hard work exacted a different price from the hopeful settlers.

The Homestead Act required settlers to remain on the land for five years in order for ownership to be official because of the following reasons:

The idea behind letting the settlers have pieces of land that big almost free of cost was to populate the western part of the country and bring a broad equilibrium in the distribution of the population across the geography of the country. Thus, it was necessary to make the settlers stay there for a long period of time so that they settle down and do not opt to move back to where they came from. Hence, the condition of inhabiting and cultivating the land for at least five years was put on the settlers. The government wanted to assure that the settlers got accustomed to the atmospheric conditions in the west and did not leave the place after they got huge 160-acre plots of lands registered on their names, merely for not being able to adapt to the atmosphere in that part of the country. The government wanted the settlers seeking to own the land to take the responsibility of the cultivation of the land in the long term and not abandon it once they get its ownership. Moreover, the government also needed the settlers to check on themselves whether or not they were able to manage the entire 160-acre pieces of land. The 5-year span also allowed both, the settlers and the government to check the potential of the settlers to keep pieces of land that huge in size.